The Circle of Life, er, I mean Healing

The Circle of Healing (CoH) is, in my eyes, close cousin to Holy Nova.

We NEED something like this to fill a gaping hole in our abilities. And it’s got all. that. potential.

But when it comes time down to brass tacks… since it’s all we’ve got we choose it, and since we have it we squeeze the best we can from it, but Oh Dear Darkness, why can’t we get something that’s a delight?

Let me start with the good about this – and its potential. What we have is a ranged AoE spell that will heal people who are not in our party. Target someone – in our party or not – at a distance, and everyone in THAT TARGET’s party who in the Area of Effect gets a heal. Raids are the obvious use. But consider when you’re at max distance from your tank and a fair chunk of your party is on the OTHER SIDE of the tank — all needing a heal Real Soon Now — and this looks to be exactly the spell you need. (And yes, I’ve been there when Hellmaw or Blackheart, just to mention shadow labs, finishes their little fun and games. You can add your own favorites to the list.) But then you look at the numbers…

Instant cast is good. 40 yard range… looking better yet. 450 mana (at rank 5) for an AoE? That’s about what Renew (11) or Flash Heal (7) cost (assuming no talents), so… ok. Heals all party members of the target who are with 15 yards. ummm, 15 yards? Not even 20 – melee range – but close enough to see the warts? Do they have to be holding hands to? (sorry, sometimes the sarcasm overwhelms me. Besides, that’s not so bad. What else…?) Heals 499 to 551 pretalents. (crickets… do I hear crickets?) Remember, this is RANK 5 – you can’t get it till level 70.

That’s actually it’s great weakness. It’s a dinky little heal. Oh, I could whine about the HpM ratio of 1/1 (for single), but if it hits a full party that’s 5/1 which is a decent efficiency ESPECIALLY given the good features. No, what sucks about this is its throughput.

The only reason to use this instead of, oh, renew cast several times in a row, is the fact it’s an AoE. Everybody “over there” gets 500 points NOW.

And while I may scoff at that, there are times when everybody over there needs some healing NOW and 500 beats the crap out of nothing.

I recommend this spell if you’ve got the room, and if you’re going to be a raid healer. Not necessarily – in fact, absolutely not – EVERY healer, but at least one who covers the whole field as backup. It fills a niche we need filled. It’s just it does it as well as Holy Nova fills the AoE Damage field – poorly.

Oh, and did I mention it’s the Ultimate Talent for the holy tree? sigh.

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One Response to “The Circle of Life, er, I mean Healing”

With my guild moving out of Kara and into the 25 man raids, I respec’d and picked up CoH. It’s the first time since the game was released in Nov 2004 that I’ve been this far down the holy tree (I’ve really been a priest this long…). I’m enjoying CoH and finding it very useful in 25 man raids. Of course, not every priest need to have it, I want someone to buff DS on me. :p
It’s a good raiding talent and a complete waste of point for anyone not healing in 25 mans. I can’t think of a good reason to pick it up, aside from experimentation) if your focus is on 5 man, heroics, Kara or pvp (obviously).

About…

I've experience with many priests of many races and specs on several servers. The more I play, the more I realize how much I do not yet know. This is a share of some of what I have learned.
My main these days is Zingiber on the Undermine server.